Caborn on the British grand prix

Question: You have been working hard to keep the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, but does Bernie Eccelstone's latest decision show the relatively weak power of government in the face of a multi-billion pound sport?

Richard Caborn: It is a multi-billion pound sport and being absolutely honest if it was just about keeping Formula One in Britain for Formula One's sake, then that would not be a position for government. But it is much wider than that.

What we are trying to do is to build Silverstone to become one of the major industrial clusters both in this country and worldwide around Formula One. We are in the process, through the East Midlands Development Agency, with the British Racing Drivers Club in discussing how we can develop something like 200 acres as a major industrial cluster which would have the involvement of universities, which would have a state of the art wind tunnel – we believe we can build the best in the world – and also to have a major innovation centre.

That would allow the reconfiguration of the track and the upgrading of the spectator facilities. And also the pits, where we have got to use those for probably 10 or 11 months of the year, and Formula One would use it for one week of the year.

It really is not just about Formula One as a race. It is about building a major industrial cluster. Why do we do that? Because seven of the top 11 teams are already here.

We have the supply chain already inflowing where no other country has got that, 40,000 jobs are reliant on that. So it is in the government's interest.

One of the things I did very early on in this job, when the first crisis with Silverstone was three and a half years ago, which was the road problem which we resolved. We then brought the sport and industry together. That I think worked quite well.

So there is that synergy now between the sport and the industry. What we have got to try and do is to resolve the problems of Formula One now which is a commercial deal between the British Racing Drivers Club and Formula One and that is now ongoing.

Question: Have you not expected more support from the British based teams?

Richard Caborn: In that sense it is a commercial deal between the British Racing Drivers Club and Formula One. How they engage the teams, I have got to be careful because they are the teams, which whilst domiciled here, they actually perform 19, 20 races around the world.

But that is a decision for the British Racing Drivers Club and that is a commercial deal. What we are doing is helping the British Racing Drivers Club realise some of their assets in a way they probably couldn't do without the support of government through the East Midlands Development Agency.

Question: Silverstone is known as a poor venue for spectators. Realistically, are we more likely to have a grand prix on the streets of London where all the hotels and transport links are already in place?

Richard Caborn: You wouldn't go to London. You would have to shut London down for a month. You couldn't shut London down.

If you saw what happened this year when we had that little sorte of Formula One cars, which was great there is no doubt about that. But to think you could actually bring Formula One race around London, I think could be stretching the imagination.

Caborn on the 2012 Olympic bid

Question: This week we have had the Olympic parade in Trafalgar Square. Were you disappointed with the turnout?

Richard Caborn: No not at all. The problem was some commentators drew down the analogy with the England rugby team and the athletics.

One has always got to acknowledge that team sports like football and rugby will always have that type of allegiance from the club structure. That is why 10,000 turned out at five o'clock in the morning to welcome the rugby team back. Because a lot of those England players were their team players from Bath, Harlequins and so on. Therefore you have got that natural groundswell.

I think it was a fantastic turnout. Nearly a quarter of a million people on the streets of London, midweek, cheering on athletes. I think it was a great success.

Question: How big an issue is the level of support among the public in terms of bidding for 2012?

Richard Caborn: I think we have got a tremendous amount of support. There is a groundswell of support right across the country because now it is about pride.

I think we will indicate that the British public are supportive of 2012. That is what is coming across to us.

Question: Could the lack of media support cost Britain the Games?

Richard Caborn: I don't know about costing us the Games. They could definitely help us to get the Games and we have always got to recognise – and our editors and correspondents have got to recognise – that the British press is read disproportionately around the world, particularly the broadsheets.

In that sense, if it is negative it is disproportionate, if it is positive it is disproportionate. That is why and, to be fair, broadly speaking the press are behind the bid, constructively critical, fine, but I am hoping that they will give us that boost that we need.

When we put in our candidate file in November and the evaluation team is here in February I hope that they really get behind the bid. Because they can win us the bid, no doubt about it.

Question: Are we doing enough outside of London to convince people who are going to be paying for the Games that they will benefit the country as a whole?

Richard Caborn: I think so. I think the nations and regions committee which has now been set up in 2012, which is chaired by Charles Allen, is doing a first class job. And what it is doing is bringing the regions together. Indeed only a couple of weeks ago Yorkshire presented their document to us on how they are going to capitalise on a 2012 bid.

They have already done an audit across the whole of Yorkshire as to what facilities they have got, universities, public, private sector. They are now mapping out how they can attract the teams, 202 teams competed in Athens probably more when we get to 2012, to come into our region, Yorkshire, and domicile themselves for two, three, four months before the actual games.

If you think the British team on the Gold Coast spent I don't know how many millions of pounds before they actually went down to Sydney, some of the regions could actually have a better deal out of this than London. Because they will be in the regions much longer than they will be here in London for two weeks of actually performing.

Question: The candidate file submission is coming up soon. What amendments have been made since the IOC report in the summer?

Richard Caborn: On the transport side of it we have worked very heavily on that and that has been reflected in the comprehensive spending review because the East London line was in that and I think most people are now very satisfied or will be with that.

On the legacy side, which is I think the very strong selling point for our bid, if you look at the Lea Valley, on the one hand we obviously haven’t got all the facilities built, obviously. But the one thing we can do is build the facilities such that we can get 21 of the sports in that area, 15 minutes travel from the village.

And every one of those facilities will have an after-use after the Games. So in terms of the legacy, in terms of the exit strategy, I think that will be second to none. And in terms of the convenience of travel within that area, I don't think any of the five candidate countries will be able to beat what we are doing.

Question: Don't you think most Londoners will find laughable Lord Coe's claim that people will be able to get from central London to the Olympic village in 12 minutes?

Richard Caborn: You have got to remember that the traffic movements are reduced by 15 per cent. When I travel around in August it is completely different from travelling round in other months. Kids are on holiday away from school and a lot of people go out of London anyway.

We will increase the travel by around a couple of per cent. We are also doing the East London Line so again we will have an infrastructure there which will be as good, if not better than any other candidate country.

Caborn on Athens and grassroots sport

Question: How much of a boost do you think British success in Athens will have on participation in grassroots sport?

Richard Caborn: I think no doubt it really is the icing on the cake. We have been working very hard over the last few years to drive up participation in sport, from a government point of view. That is because of the health issues, the social inclusion issues, the education issues that sport can actually deliver on quite effectively.

What we have been able to do is to use the success at Athens to actually lift the aspirations of a lot of young people. People like Kelly Holmes, Amir Khan and Matthew Pinsent they are heroes. People want to model themselves on that and they have been doing a first class job and will continue to do that for us in inspiring young people to take up sport.

My job is to make sure that when people are inspired, we have got a system in place that will be able to make it sustainable. So that they actually stop in the sport with good quality coaches, good quality facilities and good access to those facilities and that is what we are working at.

It is no good having Kelly Holmes and all that if – and we see this every year at Wimbledon – kids pick up tennis rackets and there is nowhere to play tennis. What we are doing is going everything in a very systematic way. You can access now, on the website, if you want to play badminton, you can see where all the facilities are to play that sport, telephone lines to book or booking online, all that is now being developed.

Question: Are you hoping Amir Khan’s success is going to encourage more interest among young people in amateur boxing?

Richard Caborn: Very much so. I support boxing and I have a very good friend called Brendan Ingle who runs a boxing club in Sheffield and has brought some great champions through but more importantly he has a lot of youngsters who, probably are on the edge, who he has kept in society and indeed are not only role models in their own right but have made a contribution to society.

I think boxing is a sport which probably gets to areas which probably other sports don't get to and somebody like Amir Khan is a fantastic role model for young people to follow and I think that is coming through very clearly.

Question: Do you think Paula Radcliffe set a bad example to young people, that you can drop out of races if you don’t expect to win?

Richard Caborn: No, I think that what Paula Radcliffe did was show that the difference between success and failure is a very fine line. There you have got probably the best runner in the world, which she was up to that day, the pressure was on.

For whatever reason, like a lot of athletes around, the one thing that they all want is an Olympic medal. But you only get a chance once every four years. Paula, fine London marathon, world records, she’s got loads of them. But the one thing athletes always want is that Olympic medal. I can understand why she ran to try to get a medal.

I was talking to Kelly Holmes at the reception earlier this week and she was saying it is amazing for how many great athletes that gold medal has eluded them. That is why it is so pivotal.

Question: Tessa Jowell announced at the Labour Party conference new scholarships for talented athletes. Is that a recognition that a lot of Britain's Olympic success has come in traditionally upper class sports such as rowing, sailing and show jumping?   

Richard Caborn: No I think what we are trying to do is first of all to get the nation more active, particularly through our schools and we are investing heavily. We have committed to two hours of quality physical activity for every kid every week from the age of five to 16.

Within that we now want the talent identification. Once we have identified the talent within the school structures and linked that with the clubs we have got, we then want to make sure that we can seamlessly taken those youngsters through school and then beyond school, through to, hopefully, world class performance.

So what you have got with the Talented Athletes Scholarship Scheme is bursaries and scholarships. So we identify the talent within schools, work the curriculum around the kids after the schools, then if they are at university or further education, or if they are an apprentice plumber or an engineer, they can have access to those bursaries or scholarships, so they can actually continue to develop. At some stage they may well get picked up with world class performance.

So we have now got identification and a sustainable structure to be able to take those kids all the way through to realise their full potential. If it is world class, then you can get world class performance. So there should now be very much a seamless transition to realise the talent of every young person that wants it.

Question: Is two hours sport per week enough?   

Richard Caborn: No. The prime minister has said so. We are looking at how we can extend that. What we are doing is rolling out the infrastructure. At the moment we have got about 330 but we want 400 sports partnerships which is a sports college, eight secondaries and 30 primaries linked together in a family of schools.

Schools partnerships will have school sports coordinators working through all that structure and then linking that to the club structure which we are now investing in through government bodies, linked to our community coaching structure.

Within that we will have for the first time a very sustainable sports structure. As prime minister made very clear, that is not enough. So will have a structure that can take it to two hours, to three hours, to four hours and that is what we are looking for in our next five year plan.

Question: Is that going to be in the manifesto?

Richard Caborn: I don't know at the moment. We will have to think about that. But we are doing a lot of work because it is in the nation's interest to make sure that we really do for the first time ever start building physical activity into everybody's daily lives.

A child 30 years ago got 70 per cent more physical activity than a child today and that is why type two diabetes has increased by a factor of four in our young people over the last 15 years. That is very, very serious and all the medical evidence is that is because of a sedentary lifestyle.

So for the first time now we are having to build physical activity into everybody's daily life. That is why the two hours, three hours, four hours is so important to us.

Question: Do you expect the Department of Health's white paper on public health to have a strong exercise element?

Richard Caborn: I think it is going to involve that. Liam Donaldson's report on obesity was very, very clear. We have really got to get our house in order. That is we in this department, the DCMS. I think you will see that that will be further encouraged in the white paper.